SAN ANTONIO – The day before Thanksgiving 2015, Angelica Jimenez had plans. She was supposed to report to work at USAA, a job she recently started. She had four children her family has said she loved.
When she didn't show up for work and never made it home to her kids, they knew something wasn't right.
"People who knew her, knew she was always with her children and it doesn't make sense that she would of just left them alone. She was not like that," said her brother, Blas Mendoza in November 2015.
Adding to the mystery: her white 2011 Jeep Cherokee was on the move for a week and a half, but there was no sign of Jimenez.
The trail had gone cold until October 25. Remains found off Bartell Road in East Kerr County near Interstate 10 were identified as hers. Investigators there and in San Antonio are trying to determine whether Jimenez was a victim of foul play.
Retracing her steps
The San Antonio Police Department's Missing Persons Unit has gone back to all of the places Jimenez was last suspected to have been seen -- including her apartment in the 8000 block of Oakdell Way.
"The last time she was seen was by her husband. They had an argument and she left her home location in her white Jeep Grand Cherokee. Nobody had seen her after that," said Courtney Weyrich, a member of the Missing Persons Unit.
She said it's not clear where Jimenez was headed immediately after the argument, but that she never went to work.
As her family and police looked for Jimenez, they kept finding her Jeep Cherokee.
"There were several locations that it was actually seen in San Antonio, including one at her apartment complex after she had disappeared. Then it was seen the following day or a couple of days later at a shopping center parking lot by (her) family. We were not able to verify that it was her vehicle because we did not have a picture of the license plate to be able to identify it as her vehicle," Weyrich said.
It was spotted even further away, passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint on the way to Eagle Pass.
"The only time that it was seen moving was through that Eagle Pass checkpoint, which the camera systems due to the (rainy) weather we're not able to get a good photo to see who was driving - if it was a male or a female," Weyrich said.
There was no record of the Jeep Cherokee coming back towards San Antonio, but on Dec. 4, it was found nearly 20 miles away in an H-E-B parking lot at Pleasanton Road and Southwest Military Drive.
"When we located the car, the vehicle key was still in the ignition. The vehicle was off. Her purse was in the vehicle. Other than that, there was nothing to give us any indication of where she could be or who she could be with," Weyrich said.
That was the last clue.
"No money trail. No banks being used. No friends. No nothing," Weyrich said.
Voluntary disappearance 'very unusual'
As the one year anniversary of Jimenez's disappearance nears, it's hard for Weyrich to believe the mother chose to start a new life on her own.
"She was in the process of trying to make an independent life for herself," Weyrich said. "It's very possible that she did not leave of her own free will, but we have no evidence of it. We have no witnesses telling us that they saw something. But somebody who is this active in bettering their life, to walk away from it is very unusual."
If you have any information on what happened Jimenez or how she wound up in Kerr County, call SAPD's Missing Persons Unit at 210-207-7660.
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